2017 Monthly Building Contest - October: TRA LA LA!!!

For my first go at hosting a Monthly Build comp, I've gone with one of my favourite things - Music!

I'd like to see anything music related. You could go for...

- A model of a musical instrument- A scene / vignette of a musical theme: a band playing, a conductor with an orchestra, somebody putting their feet up listening to an album, a DJ spinning the wheels of steel...- Pick a lyric from a favourite song and build something that illustrates the words. If you do this, please quote the song and the lyrics so we can all appreciate it properly!- Anything else that your muse suggests, as long as you can make a convincing argument that it falls under the heading of 'Music'.

The prize will be one MISB #40225 Olympic Mascot set from Rio last year (I say mint, it had to survive 14 hours in my suitcase, so pretty-good-sealed-in-box is more like it), and I'm sure I can find something in The Box Of Polybags.

The Rules

- We'd like a new MOC rather than recycling anything previously built- Fit within the theme of Music. The above suggestions are just a guide, feel free to do your own thing- If building a scene, please restrict it to no larger than a 32x32 baseplate- Please post no more than three photos in the thread - if you'd like to post more, please link to an external account such as Flickr- If it's not immediately obvious what you've built, or if you're illustrating a particular song, please give a description- The winner will probably be the post with most likes, but I reserve the right to pick something else if I really, really like it - Only pictures that are posted before midnight (GMT) on Oct 31st will be eligble

Great idea! Got toadmit, when I saw the title I thought of something else... My son is reading 'captain underpants' books at a crazy rate and keeps going 'tra la laaaa' - that's his 'war-cry'. In totally brainwashed! Glad we don't have to make him in Lego...

Inspiration struck last night, so building will commence this evening... And I also have to sort out the example build for next month, but at least I have known the theme for a while (with spares just in case someone chose the same concept for a previous month).

Thank you all for your contributions - a varied and excellent selection. My congrats to one and all.

I shall deliberate on the entries and announce the winner later today.

Unfortunately, because all my Lego is stored in my loft, and I had to have surgery last week, I am unable to perform the requisite gymnastics to get up there. So apologies in advance, but the winner will have to wait a couple of weeks for their prize.

First up was @FowlerBricks and his depiction of "Batman in concert". With Batman rocking out on vocals, drums and guitar simultaneously (how does that work then? Bale, West and Keaton maybe?), Robin grooving too, plus an assortment of baddies, cameramen and a full audience, on a brick built stage, we got off to a great start.

Then in an attempt to sew up the comp before it had even started, @Fowlerbricks was back with a superb recreation of an Erhu, or Chinese Violin. Loaded with detail and amazing accurate to the source material, it won the public vote.

For a week it looked like it was going to be a one-horse race, but then a new contender entered the arena in the shape of @TheOriginalSimonB and the "Music of the Spheres". With a number of spheres in a variety of build techniques, it was clever, colourful and a bit left field.

A few days later, @snowhitie entered the fray, deciding to go down the 'illustrate the lyric' route, with Starship's 'We Built This City On Rock & Roll'. Creating a detailed microworld sitting above a band rocking out (And there's Batman again! Who knew he was such a talented musician?) the two stage build illustrated the title perfectly, while at the same time reminding me of Jabba's Palace / The Rancor Pit.Maybe that's just me...

Moments later @M_Boss swung by to demonstrate that simple can be effective. Choosing 'Colour My World' by smooth groovers Chicago, a couple of handfuls of trans-clear / trans-coloured 1x1s were transformed into a watercolouresque wall of colour. Very clever indeed.

By now the floodgates were open, and @SirBrickalotOfLego was next to get into the game. Taking 'Bleeding Gums Murphy' - an ageing jazz saxophonist who acts as inspiration for aspiring horn player Lisa Simpson - as inspiration, SirB created 'Jazzman', a vignette that seemingly had one foot in the Simpsons and one foot in Robot Wars. It was slightly unnerving but a very skilful bit of building.

Soon after, @Jern92 showed off their choir. Simple it may have been, on a neat little base, but for me the excellent choice of facial expressions for the minifigs made this something special.

As the month drew to a close we had a spate of late entries. @Bumblepants dredged though the memory banks to resurrect Andrew WK (remember him, of 'Party Hard' fame?) with an accurate representation of the singer / multi-instrumentalist, and a cool multicoloured background for this neat vignette.

@TheOriginalSimonB was back with a delightfully awful visual pun as a couple of anthropomorphic banjos got into a fight.Or a duel, if you will.

There needs to be more humour in music!!

He also came up with a skeletal xylophone orchestra rocking out in a spooky graveyard. I particularly liked the dapper corpse in the bowler hat.

And rounding out the "Music" entries came @mafon with his evolving hi-fi. They started out with a basic record player, which morphed into a vintage version of the same, and then - displaying the same sort of factual accuracy that meant I did not pursue history as a subject at school - added a brick-built Mozart in with one of his favourite LPs.

But there can be only one winner!

I liked them all. Honourable mentions go to 'We Built This City On Rock & Roll' and 'Duelling Banjos', but on this particular occasion I agree with the great unwashed, and my winner for Oct 2017 is...

Welll done @FowlerBricks , I liked your violin too! Thanks for the honoureable mention too, I really enjoyed this contest, love trying to represent words in fysicial from (duelling banjo's really stiched me up BTW). Whish I'd had more time this month, but glad I managed to get that one finished :)

This arrived today! Super excited about the Lester fig. Also found the lack of parts count on the Bus box really interesting. I'd seen sets like that before, but never actually gotten one. Thanks a ton @BooTheMightyHamster!!